Swooner Crooner
Swooner Crooner is a 1944 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions and released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures. The cartoon was nominated for the 1945 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) (the only Porky Pig cartoon to do so), which it lost to the Tom and Jerry cartoon Mouse Trouble.https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1945 Plot Porky Pig is the supervisor of the "Flockheed Eggcraft Factory", where dozens of hens lay eggs for the war effort (in this case, World War II). The hens suddenly get distracted from their egg laying when a handsome rooster named Frankie (who sings like Frank Sinatra) is heard singing outside. Frankie's renditions of "It Can't Be Wrong" by Dick Haymes and "As Time Goes By" (from Casablanca, 1942) causes all the hens to swoon. Porky rushes to investigate. Soon, he's auditioning for a new crooner; those showing up are caricatures of Vaughn Monroe ("Shortnin' Bread"), Al Jolson ("September in the Rain"), Jimmy Durante ("Lullaby of Broadway"), Cab Calloway ("Minnie the Moocher", "Blues in the Night"), and Bing Crosby ("When My Dream Boat Comes Home").IMDb soundtrack listing Porky asks the Bing Crosby rooster (who introduced himself as "The Old Groaner") to be the crooner, provoking a competition with Frankie. Between the two of them, the overexcited hens' egg production is increased to a level beyond what Porky can handle, including a just-hatched hen chick laying an egg many times her own size. Surveying literal hills and mountains of eggs all over his farm, Porky was impressed and asks the two roosters, "How did you ever m-m-make 'em lay all those eggs." The roosters demonstrate their technique by crooning at Porky, who lays a mountainful of eggs himself as a result. Notes *''Swooner Crooner'' was the first cartoon in the Looney Tunes series to be re-released as part of Warner Bros. Cartoons' "Blue Ribbon" reissue series, on February 12, 1949. *Part of the cartoon's basic premise was reused in the 2004 short Cock-a-Doodle Duel with Foghorn Leghorn. In it, Foghorn competes with a genetically-engineered rooster to make hens lay eggs. *Pre-1995 prints are known to keep the original ending music. However, both European and American Turner dubbed prints change the title to the 1941-55 MM rendition.[3][4] The DVD and future releases use the dubbed soundtrack.https://archive.org/details/Toonheads_227_Crooner_Toons Censorship Versions of this cartoon shown on most American TV channels (particularly Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TNT, TBS, and some local syndicated affiliates) cut the part where the Al Jolson rooster auditions with "September in the Rain," going from the Nelson Eddy rooster tiring himself out while singing "Shortnin' Bread" to the Jimmy Durante rooster singing "Lullaby of Broadway." Surprisingly, the appearance of the Cab Calloway rooster singing "Blues In The Night" was never edited out on any of the channels listed. Availability *VHS, Laserdisc - Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs and Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons *LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 1, Side 9, unrestored *DVD – Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc 2, restored, but the 1941-55 end cue is used as the dubbed version is the source of the soundtrack (includes audio commentary from music historian Daniel Goldmark). *Blu-ray – Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc 2, same as Golden Collection References External links * Category:1944 Category:Porky Pig Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Frank Tashlin Category:Wartime Shorts Category:Blue Ribbon reissues Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Academy Award nominees Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Sara Berner Category:Cartoons animated by Izzy Ellis Category:Cartoons animated by Arthur Davis Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger Category:Caricatures of real people Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package